Augusta Supple, RSWWF 2023 Festival Director

Augusta is a highly accomplished creative producer and theatre director based in Sydney, with a focus on new work and multi-playwright productions. She is an active writer and commentator, with articles and essays published on platforms such as artshub.com, New Matilda, and Australian Stage.com. She has appeared on panels at the NSW Writers Centre, Playwriting Australia and Australia Council. Augusta has extensive experience working in government agencies, advising on arts and cultural policy, strategic project development and delivery. Augusta is a Member and Director of The Women's Club. For more information on Augusta's work, you can visit her website. 

Margaret McKay, Festival Co-director 2013 and Festival Director 2014

Business support and community involvements were the backdrops to Marg’s inner voice, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ Finally, the answer arrived in her 50s: university, and the study of literature and creative writing. After graduating, and further studies, she ultimately launched a freelance career as a pen for hire, writing and editing. In 2012, while chatting with friends at The Women’s Club, a new venture was suggested, and the Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival was born. Marg continues to enjoy facilitating other’s writing journeys through creative writing groups, workshops and private coaching.

Dr Wendy Michaels OAM, Festival Director 2015-2017

Dr Wendy Michaels OAM is an Honorary Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. Her research interests include women in politics and the arts. Her publications include academic articles, teacher resource books and children’s poetry, stories, plays and a picture book. Wendy is currently completing a biography of Millicent Preston Stanley, the first women elected to the NSW parliament and has directed drama and literature festivals including the Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia, the Ourimbah Children’s Literature Festival and the Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival. She was awarded an OAM for her services to women and to the dramatic arts. 

Angela Bowne SC, Festival Director 2018-2019

Angela Bowne SC is a barrister and mediator with a special interest in intellectual property, arts, entertainment, publishing, journalism, science and technology law and alternative dispute resolution. She has been a publisher, editor and journalist and was the first Research Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary. She has served on a number of arts/advisory boards, including Sydney Chamber Opera (chair 2012-2017), Australian Theatre for Young People, Synergy Taikoz, International PEN Sydney (President 2006-2007, awarded life membership), CuriousWorks, 107 Projects, Sydney Film Festival and the Advisory Council for UNSW Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. She currently chairs the ATYP Foundation. She was awarded life membership of the Copyright Society of Australia for her services to creators and copyright and has served on several NSW Bar Committees, including as Chair of the Bar’s Media Awards and its Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. She is a member of the Bar’s Media and Information Law and Technology Committee.

Catherine du Peloux Menage, Festival Director 2020-2021

After a career in educational publishing, Catherine is now a facilitator at writers’ festivals and literary events as well as a Festival Director. She has been the Artistic Director of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival since 2019. She was Director of the Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival at the Women’s Club from 2020-2021 co-founded the St Albans Writers’ Festival in 2015 and was its Artistic Director from 2015 to 2018. She has been a judge for the Ned Kelly awards. Catherine is also a teacher and gives talks on the joys of scent.

Kathryn Millard, Festival Director 2022

Kathryn Millard is an award-winning filmmaker and writer (scripts, essays, criticism). Her screen works span documentaries (Shock Room, The Boot Cake, Light Years), feature dramas (Travelling Light, Parklands) and essay films. She has been awarded numerous writing fellowships and residences. Author of Double Exposure: How Psychology Fell in Love with the Movies (Rutgers, 2022) and Screenwriting in a Digital Era (MacMillan, 2014) Kathryn is Emeritus Professor in Screen and Creative Arts at Macquarie University.

Roanna Gonsalves, Curator 2023

Roanna Gonsalves is the award-winning author of The Permanent Resident published in India and South Asia as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney. She has been an invited Keynote Speaker, Chair and panelist at numerous literary events and has been teaching, supervising and mentoring emerging prose writers and screenwriters within communities, schools, literary organizations and other institutions. She serves on the Board of Writing NSW and on the International Project Reference Group for the ARC-funded project 'Connecting Asia Pacific Literary Cultures'. She works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at UNSW, Sydney.

Helen Loughlin, Curator 2023

Helen Loughlin is a poet living in Sydney and has just completed her first collection, Readings and Mysteries. She’s organised literary events Writers in the Park and the Bridge Readings and edited Phoenix Review, Hermes and Antithesis. She’s been awarded residences at Varuna and Bundanon for her work which has appeared in Southerly, Antithesis, Tangent, Rant, Hobo, Essential Poetry, Hermes, Blue Bottle and Red Room Poetry. She’s just finished her MA (Res) at the University of Sydney and is about to start a PhD. She works with creative industries and higher education and currently senior communications officer at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.

Ally Burnham, Curator 2023

Ally Burnham is an AWGIE winning screenwriter, NIDA graduate (2016, Masters Writing for Performance), novelist and writer of comics. She is best known for her feature film Unsound (2020), nominated for Best Original Feature at the 2020 AWGIE awards. The film won Best Australia Feature at the 2020 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Best Fiction Feature Film at the 2020 ATOM Awards, and was nominated for Best Indie Feature at the 2020 AACTA awards. Ally is the lead writer for Metropius; her short film screenplay won Most Outstanding Animation at the 2022 AWGIE Awards.

Sara Mansour, Curator 2023

Bankstown Poetry Slam (BPS), Australia's largest poetry slam. Founded in 2013, BPS has partnered with a number of leading organisations and festivals over the years such as Youtube, Sydney Festival, the Biennale of Sydney, Sydney Writers Festival and the Art Gallery of NSW, attracting crowds of up to 900 people.  Having graduated from a Bachelor of Laws from Western Sydney University in 2016, Sara is also a practicing lawyer and board member of Monkey Baa Theatre Company and the Crescent Institute. She uses her practice and her art to shed light on issues of political and social importance and to drive change. Sara has been heavily involved in community work and the arts since BPS' inception, performing and facilitating workshops locally and internationally, and curating "Real Talk" - an award-winning inter-school poetry program which uses performance poetry as a medium to discuss contemporary social issues and empower young people in Western Sydney to find and use their voices. 

Adrienne Ferreira, Curator 2023

Adrienne is an author, poet, and the founder of Bravewords. She’s a creative writing teacher and mentor who works with local government and arts organisations to develop a stronger writing community on the Central Coast by providing opportunities for people to build writing confidence, learn literary techniques and connect more deeply through storytelling.

With a BA in psychology and an MA in creative writing from the University of Sydney, she’s the author of the novel, Watercolours, published by 4th Estate.

Adrienne is the co-host of Bravewords Live, a night of true storytelling held on the last Sunday of the month in Gosford.